From teaching reading at the middle school level and college level, I have identified some literacy practices that were important to me in my early (and even later) years. Most of my work in this has been accomplished through modeling a literacy history assignment, which I always have students complete. The assignment has been important on two levels: first, I believe that students need opportunities to think about their thinking and to consider their philosophical foundations before moving to the next level of their educational experience; second, this exercise has helped me recall events from my own reader and writer history that have helped me understand my practices.
As one example of a formative writing experience, I remember now that when I saw a popular film, I wanted to write about the characters—or when I read a graphic novel, which was often, I would want to make one myself. Margaret Atwood writes about a similar reading to writing practice in the introduction to her graphic novel, Angel Catbird. Often, this creation took place in a dollar store notebook, with lined pages for easy panel creation. It is no small wonder many of my practices made their way into my pedagogy, and I would one day ask both middle school and college students to create comics with me.
Like many of my students, I encountered texts that were required readings in my K-12 education. I slogged through books that I did not find otherwise engaging simply because I was required to do so. I was a good student, so I attempted to read them while playing video games or engaging in some other task that I found more meaningful. When we read a good book, we often want to write about it or share it with others. This was not the case for me with some of my required readings, but books with a wider brand and popular characters captured my interest.
Some school systems craft highly motivating literacy initiatives that lead to fond recollections for graduates; others address reading and writing as a makeshift afterthought, settling for token rewards that produce little results after a few years—especially for students who are reluctant to read in the first place.
This connection from reading to writing seems to be natural. In my literacy history assignment, I look for those ways for students to think and write about, in one to two pages, the ideas that captured them as young writers so that they can carry these forward for greater self-understanding. For students at the middle school level, this experience supports thinking through “authoring” identities and the writing they want to accomplish. That is certainly true for students at the college level as well while we address the ways students want to construct literacy experiences for others. I would rather my students, at any level, find a text they love and then extend it in their own writing practice.
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Jason D. DeHart is an assistant professor of reading education at Appalachian State University. He completed his Ph.D. at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and taught middle school English for eight years.